Inducks only lists about 55 stories ever made (worldwide) with this character and none since 1999, so this will be the first time in over a decade that Darkwing Duck returns to the funny pages. And, it’ll be the first original duck story to be published in the United States for a while as well.

The mini-series is written by Ian Brill and drawn by James Silvani. “It’s such a dream to bring back Darkwing, a favorite of mine and millions of others,” says series writer Brill. “Everyone involved in this book are working tirelessly to make sure this comic has the same feel of anarchic fun of the TV series, while still presenting a whole new adventure in the life of Darkwing.”

The story sees Darkwing’s city of St. Canard under the control of a mysterious corporation. Darkwing’s been out of commission for a while but when his friends and family are under attack … you better watch out. Darkwing will fight new villains as well as old, including Megavolt, Quackerjack, Liquidator and Bushroot.

For more see this article and interview on Comic Book Resources.

The 400th issue comes out on March 9th. To celebrate this milestone, Ehapa is also releasing a four-volume special edition presenting a selection of some of the best stories by the best artists. The four books will be released one per week in the month of March.

Casty

I had a chance to ask Casty some questions about his career as a writer/artist and his work for Disney. Casty shared with me his early start in writing comics, where he finds his inspiration, and details about an upcoming story that may be of interest to duck fans!

Disney Comics Worldwide: How long have you been a comic book artist and how did you get started working for Disney Italia?

Casty: Well, I was born in 1967 and started making comics in 1977. No, I’m not kidding, listen … I wrote (and drew) my first Disney stories when I was ten years old, on my school books. Then I handed them out to my fellow students. My friends were enthusiastic; every week they were waiting for a brand new story, just like it was a real weekly Mickey Mouse magazine (“Topolino” in Italy). They didn’t know (and neither did I) that the stories in the “real” Topolino were made by many different authors (and not all written by Walt Disney himself).

Professionally, I started writing comics in 1993 for “Cattivik”, a monthly comic book for kids, which is very popular in Italy. My first story was published in 1994 and, so far, I have written (and sometimes drawn) about 200 stories for Cattivik. In 1999, I started writing for another famous Italian character, “Lupo Alberto”, and in September 2002 I finally started working for Disney Italia.

Cattivik by Casty

When I came to Disney, I found my new colleagues were not very enthusiastic about writing Mickey Mouse stories and almost all of them preferred writing Duck stories. Well, I thought that was a pity; for me, Mickey was so lovable! I had in my mind those wonderful stories by Romano Scarpa and Floyd Gottfredson. To me, that was the “real” Mickey; always ready to get into adventures, with that sort of naive sense of wonder that was actually lost, in recent years, when he was turned in that sort of know-it-all detective.
So, I started writing stories for Mickey Mouse. The editors really liked my stories and my colleagues liked them too. Everybody used to say: “Hey, you’re a Disney newbie, but you write as if you were a Disney expert!” So, I answered “Well, it’s because, actually, I started in 1977, when I was ten!”

With Giorgio Cavazzano, Massimo De Vita and many other Italian artists, we inspired a new interest in Mickey Mouse stories; working with Mickey became stimulating again. And, most importantly, readers showed their appreciation for these new stories with Mickey!

Nowadays, many other writers take care of Mickey, so I finally have the chance to rest as a writer and dedicate myself to drawing.

Cover of Topolino 2779 (idea and art by Casty)	Cover of Topolino 2656 (idea and art by Casty)

DCW: Your long adventure stories with Mickey Mouse have a classic feel to them, reminiscent of the work done by great artists like Romano Scarpa and Floyd Gottfredson. Did they influence you and what other artists do you admire?

Casty: I’m really honored (and embarrassed) when people compare my work to Scarpa’s and Gottfredson’s. I think Scarpa, Gottfredson and – of course – Carl Barks are a trio of incomparable Grandmasters; they are on the Mount Olympus of the Disney comics world.

When you decide to use a character that’s not yours, you absolutely have to respect the character’s history. When Scarpa started in the 1950s, he scrupulously followed the style of Gottfredson’s Mickey, because he loved him and respected him. So, it’s natural, for me, to follow Scarpa’s style, because his was the REAL Mickey. By “style” I mean both drawing and writing. Okay, you can add something of your own or you can explore new sides of his personality, but the character must remain the same. It’s up to you to find and write good new stories for him!

Here in Italy, the stories I wrote trying to restore Mickey’s old spirit have been very much appreciated by readers and critics alike. I even won a national prize as best writer in 2006 (Fumo di China) and I often receive fan mail from readers and fans from around the world.

By the way, every now and then someone pops up saying “Bah, your stories are too vintage for the 2000s …” Well, what does that mean? A good story is a good story, period. Every year we see Hollywood remaking old movies, which means that the original story was good. My purpose is to capture the Disney character’s “spirit” (and not only from Scarpa, but from Gottfredson, Walsh, Barks and even (Rodolfo) Cimino and (Giorgio) Pezzin, two great Italian authors), and try to make new GOOD stories.

DCW: You’re popular in Europe and have proven to be a great writer and artist. What do you think are the ingredients for a good story?

Casty: First, a good plot. Then, other stuff: mystery, humor, and levity. I have liked the mystery genre since I was a child. And I like the fact that so many things, which for us grownups are obvious, are a mystery for children. I’m thinking of times when we see Peg-Leg Pete with a big moustache and big black eyeglasses, and we grownups know it’s him … but Mickey and the little readers wonder “Who is that?! Uhm …”

DCW: How do you come up with your stories? Where do you get your inspiration?

Casty: When I was young I read hundreds of books. Verne, Salgari, H.G. Wells and Asimov were my favorites. And, I liked a lot of those science fiction movies like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Forbidden Planet.” I always liked mystery and adventure, and that’s why I try to put these elements in every story I write. By the way, I’m charmed by modernity, as well: computers, virtual reality, technological discoveries are a source of inspiration for many of my stories.

Nowadays, I usually find inspiration by surfing the web. When you see news like “Mysterious castle found on the dark side of the moon” or “Pyramids discovered in Bosnia” you can’t help your imagination starting to fly …

Script and storyboard	Rough pencils
(images from lustiges-taschenbuecher.de – © Casty & Disney)

DCW: Which do you prefer, to write or draw stories? And which do you find more difficult?

Casty: Writing is like giving away a part of yourself. Things you had inside are given away, forever. This makes you happy but, at the same time, you’re conscious that you’ll never again make a story like that. It’s a piece of you going away.

Drawing is exactly the opposite for me. I’m still learning to draw, and so I know that, next time, “this Mickey will surely come out better to me.”

So for me, drawing is “rechargeable;” writing is not.

That’s why I like writing and drawing contemporaneously. They are both difficult … and easy at the same time. Perhaps drawing is a little easier, once you’ve learned it. Besides that, your stories need to be approved by editors, and often you risk working for nothing. So, that’s why I can say that drawing as opposed to writing is a little bit easier.

Final pencils	Final inked artwork (in this case by Alessandro Zemolin)
(images from lustiges-taschenbuecher.de – © Casty & Disney)

DCW: Since you started working for Disney you’ve written and/or drawn about 45 Mickey Mouse stories. Are you interested in exploring the world of ducks or other Disney characters in the future?

Casty: I’ve just finished my first story featuring … Uncle Scrooge! It’s a story à la Carl Barks, with Scrooge hunting for a mysterious treasure. I’ve really enjoyed myself, and I hope to write more stories with ducks in the future. But Mickey remains my favorite, of course!

DCW: Boom! Studios here in the United States has selected your story “Mickey Mouse and the World to Come” for publication in the next Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories. If they decide to print another of your stories, which one should they pick? Which of your own stories is your favorite?

Casty: I love all the stories I did with Giorgio Cavazzano and Massimo De Vita. These Masters really gave life to what I wrote. But if I could choose one story to be representative of my work, I’d pick “Topolino e l’isola di Quandomai” (“Mickey Mouse on When-Ever Island”). I love this story because it has mystery, twists, humor and an ecological theme. It was not easy to use all of these these elements in a single story. It will soon be published in Italy and I hope U.S. readers will have the chance to read it too, sooner or later.

DCW: What are you working on now and what can we expect from you in the future? Any non-Disney projects you are working on?

I’m currently writing and drawing another long story with Mickey and Eega Beeva, titled “Mickey Mouse and the World of Tutor.” It’s a sort of apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, and it should be published next spring. Next, I’d like to keep on writing (and drawing) a few stories with Eega. And I still have a dream: to produce a short series of stories, a trilogy, with the one Scarpa character I love the most: Atomino Bip Bip!

Non-Disney projects? Well, I’m also running a graphic art studio, so at this moment I have no time to work on any other comic projects. But, I have some original characters in my drawer and I’m sure one day I’ll pick them up….

DCW: Any final words?

Casty: I’d love to say hello to all U.S. readers and I hope they’ll like the story as much as European readers did. “Mickey Mouse and the World to Come” is made for those who love the traditional, adventurous Mickey. I hope it will be appreciated by young readers, too!

That’s all, thanks to you for giving me the chance to introduce myself.

For more information about Casty see this fan-made website about him. Casty’s “Mickey Mouse and the World to Come” will start in issue 703 of Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories which will be released on February 10th. The series is published by Boom! Studios and the issue can be pre-ordered for $2.39 here.

The story, originally titled Topolino e il mondo che verrà, first appeared in the Italian weekly Topolino magazine issues 2721 through 2724 in January 2008.

Inside front cover

Inside back cover

The volume contains the first six chapters in the series:

• Chapter 1: The Last of the Clan McDuck
• Chapter 2: The Master of the Mississippi
• Chapter 3: The Buckaroo of the Badlands
• Chapter 4: Raider of the Copper Hill
• Chapter 5: The New Laird of Castle McDuck
• Chapter 6: The Terror of the Transvaal

There’s a two-page foreword by Don Rosa and “making of” commentaries for each chapter. These are the same articles that appeared in Gemstone’s book, which came out in 2005 and is now out of print.

It’s great to see this Eisner Award-winning epic adventure back in print. The second book in the series is slated to come out on March 31st. The Life of Scrooge originally had 12 chapters, but there are additional ‘in-between’ chapters that could fill another two books if Boom decides to print thsse as well.

Cover of Volume 1	Cover of Volume 2

You can order The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Volume 1
from Amazon for $16.49 or from Things From Another World for $17.49.

Wizards of Mickey #1, on sale January 27th, will continue the epic tale of magical adventure that was started in Mickey Mouse & Friends issues #296 – #299. The stories proved popular enough to garner its own stand alone series. Wizards of Mickey follows the adventures of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as they compete in the Grand Wizard’s tournament, determined to win all the pieces of the Sorcerer Supreme’s crown and free Mickey’s master from the clutches of the evil Phantom Blot! You can pre-order Wizards of Mickey #1 for $2.39.

Disney’s Hero Squad, which will also go on sale on January 27th, continues the Ultraheroes stories that were started in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #699 – #702. The series features Super Goof, Duck Avenger, Eega Beeva, The Red Bat and more coming together as Disney’s mightiest band of heroes, ready to stomp out the bad guys wherever they may lurk! Pre-order Hero Squad now for $2.39.

“The fan response to Wizards of Mickey and Disney’s Hero Squad has been completely insane,” says BOOM! Disney Editor Aaron Sparrow. “These characters have reached a whole new audience, and fans, old and new, have clamored to have these stories in their own dedicated series. Well, you demanded it and we delivered.”

So what will happen to Mickey Mouse & Friends and Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories? The first one will take a break for a while as Boom prepares the next wave of Mickey Mouse stories. This will delay the series milestone #300 issue, which would have been next. Comics & Stories #703 will see the debut of a new series by Italian artist Casty titled “Mickey Mouse and The World to Come” (I TL 2721-3P, “Topolino e il mondo che verrà”). For a preview of Casty’s work see this fan-made website about his work.

From this website you can even download a wallpaper for the story that is coming to Comics & Stories:

The homepage has two large features for Wizards of Mickey and Superduck:

Then there’s an Info page with some questions and answers. First it is made clear that the digital comics will be available on “mobile and smartphones, iPhones® and iPods®, PSP™ and PSP™go”. Secondly it says that “5 new stories will be released each week within the Comic Store of PlayStation®Store and Apple’s online stores, and will continue to be available in an ever growing Digicomics’ digital archive.”

I had previously heard that they were planning to release 10 stories per week, but 5 is still a good amount. The service has now been available on the PSP for two-and-a-half weeks and the number of stories is still 40 as it was the day it launched.

I can not find any information about DigiComics on the US website at Disney.com, even though the service has launched here on December 16th too. It has always surprised me that there is never any information about Disney comics on the company’s main corporate website. Everything is covered, from animation to television and from books to theme parks, but the comic books are not mentioned anywhere, even though in a lot of countries in the world that is most people’s main access to the world of Disney every week.

(This picture of Scrooge by Carl Barks was taken from Christmas Parade 5)

Disney DigiComics is using the vast library of comics created by The Walt Disney Company Italy for Topolino and other Italian comics. The Disney stories are in a special section in the PlayStation Store on the PSP and they are organized by character. You can browse by Donald Duck, Daisy, Gladstone Gander, etc. Special series, like Double Duck and Wizards of Mickey, are listed separately. The short stories (around 25 to 30 pages) are $0.99 each and the longer ones (around 50 pages) are $1.99. There is one free 8-page comic for download, which is titled ‘Donald Duck and the Fussy Genie’ (I-2270).

The titles and descriptions of the stories in the store are a bit stilted, but the translations of the stories I read so far were okay. After downloading a story it becomes available in your Digital Comics Reader, which can be downloaded from this page. I found the interface of the Reader very easy to use and I was reading my comics in no time.

The Reader uses the ‘AutoFlow’ system that shows the story how the author intended it. The screen scrolls from panel to panel as you hit the next key. Sometimes it zooms in on action for emphasis or a text balloon if it was too small to read. There is an occassional simple sound effect (the blast of a gun or the blowing of the wind), which is a bit cheesy. Fortunately, you can turn these sounds off and the reader allows you to play your own MP3 music while reading your comics, which is a great feature. At any time, you can zoom in, zoom out and scroll across the page at your leisure to have a closer look at the artwork. When you’re ready to continue, just hit the next key and it will continue AutoFlow where you left off. It’s a very smooth and intuitive system.

The longer sagas of Wizards of Mickey and Double Duck that are now available in digital format are also currently being published by Boom! Studios in the United States. At $1.99 per chapter, the digital version is a bit cheaper than the $2.99 it costs to buy a paper copy. It is interesting to note that both digital and Boom’s versions of Wizards of Mickey have the same translation but different lettering.

If you’re just in it for the stories, DigiComics are a great new way to read them. They’re cheaper, faster, cooler, and you even save some paper. If Disney is truly going to add five to ten new stories per week, you’ll be able to read the stories faster than Boom will be able to put them out. Many of these Italian stories have never been released in the United States, or anywhere in English, so this is a great way for fans and collectors of Disney comics to read lots of new material in English. Of course, it’s going to be different in each country. Here in the USA we are just getting some of these stories through Boom! Studios, but Australia and the UK currently don’t have any classic Disney comics, so for people there this will all be new. Yet in other countries, like Germany and Italy, Disney comics can be found on every street corner and lots of people may already own these stories in paper comics.

I have been reading Disney comics for over 25 years but had never read one on a hand-held device until this weekend. After this new experience I must say it was not bad at all. I still prefer to hold the paper copies in my hands, but this was definitely a fun and relaxing way to read. At $0.99 to $1.99 per story I do find it a bit on the expensive side. I’m used to storing Disney comics on the shelves in my collection (I know, old-fashioned, right?), and having a story just in digital format on my PSP feels like I don’t really own it. As a collector I’m going to (for now) continue buying my paper comic books, but I may purchase a digital story now and then that I want to read and is not available to me otherwise.

Below you can find my attempt at a video demonstration of how the PSP’s Digital Comics Reader works. The real thing looks much better than what you see in this video, but hopefully you get the idea: